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How to Make Your Own Eco-Friendly Fabric Freshener

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Fabric freshener is one of those things you think you don’t really need…until you’ve got some gotta-impress guest coming over and suddenly you realize your couch is smelling a little, well, let’s say un-fresh. Furniture and area rugs are notorious for sucking up scents, both good and bad, but there are a bevy of other reasons to use fabric fresheners, as well.

If you like to cook, especially if you like aromatic dishes such as Mexican or Indian food, your kitchen curtains or chairs could be absorbing those scents. And then there are the pet and baby issues – you know the issues of which we speak. We don’t need to mention it, right? Fabric fresheners are also great on fabric upholstery in the car. Don’t even think about hanging one of those little pine trees from the rear view mirror.

Now that you know that fabric fresheners are indeed necessary, you want to run out and buy a bottle of Febreeze, right? Wrong! You want to make your own fabric freshener! And we’re going to tell you how.

What you’ll need:

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16 ounce empty spray bottle
Cheap, 100 proof vodka**
Your favorite essential oil
Water

Directions:

  • Step 1. Add ½ cup 100 proof vodka to a 16 ounce spray bottle.
  • Step 2. Add ½ teaspoon essential oil of choice (or a mixture of oils), allowing the oil to dissolve and emulsify.
  • Step 3. Shake the bottle.
  • Step 4. Fill the remainder of the bottle with distilled water.** Note that you can replace vodka with rubbing alcohol or water but the rubbing alcohol does have a scent (dissipates after a few minutes) and using water eliminates the opportunity to kill germs with the alcohol. If you’re worried about the flammable nature of alcohol, it’s not flammable after the first few minutes, but don’t spray it near an open flame. You can also mix the alcohol half & half with water.Suggested Essential Oils:

    Lavender – for a stress-free home
    Cedar – to freshen up your closet and drawers and dissuade moths from making their homes in your wool sweaters
    Mulberry – for that Christmas time berry scent
    Vanilla – because everyone loves vanilla
    Spruce – if you like a tree scent…but be warned stay away from Pine lest your couch reek of Pine-Sol.

Evelyn

Thursday 7th of June 2012

OMG im going to make this fabric freshener in sooo many scents!!! Thank you so much for giving this recipe and great tip on the alcohol. Sincerely, Evelyn

Paige

Monday 11th of January 2010

Glad it helped, Chris!

Chris

Friday 8th of January 2010

Great tips, thanks!

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